#BackOnTrackNow: A Write by the Rails Anthology and Social Media Initiative

by Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt

This book represents a contemporary struggle – the struggle to reclaim social media as a forum for thoughtfulness and creativity, stealing back what has too often become a stage for impotent ranting. In #BackOnTrackNow, Write by the Rails catalogs some of the posts generated during its #WbtR #BackOnTrackNow social media campaign. The initiative, which officially ran for about three months in 2018, produced hundreds of short blurbs that can still be found on Facebook and Twitter under those hashtags. These blurbs come in the forms of short poems, lines of fiction, anecdotes and words of wisdom. They are necessarily and refreshingly brief, satisfying Twitter’s character limitations. If you’ve ever wanted to take part in a movement on social media, now is the time. The members of Write by the Rails dare you – dare you to be creative. Dare you to go public. Dare you to help get social media – and our world – #BackOnTrackNow. Authors who've contributed to this anthology Anonymous, Arlene Banfield, Rebecca Barnes, Terressa Boykin, Sima Button, Carol Covin, Tony Daly, John Dutton, Kathleen Ellis, Sydney Everson, Jane Fullerton Lemons, Susan Beth Furst, Leigh Giza, David Gotthardt, Katherine Gotthardt, P.M. Hernandez, David Holloway, Tim Horn, Traci Carrano Jones, Ann Lemons, Lisa Marino, Alexandra Mooney, Erika Mooney, Jan Rayl, Natalina Reis, Victor Rook, Tamela Ritter, Cathy Ryan, Jeremy Sams, Michelle Santos, Amy Taylor, George Waldrop, Henry Wallace Monroe, and Nancy Wyatt.

44 pages, Paperback

Published February 23, 2019

About the author

Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt, M.Ed., writing concentration, hails from Northern Virginia. She considers herself a writer by nature and by trade, having begun writing for fun as soon as her mother helped teach her to read. An active part of the literary community, Katherine is current president and a founding member of Write by the Rails (WbtR), the Prince William Chapter of the Virginia Writers Club. She has been a Prince William County Poet Laureate nominee and was the winner of Inside Nova’s 2019 and 2020 Best of Prince William award in the category of author. Her children’s book, A Crane Named Steve, hit number one in its category in 2019. Katherine took first place in the free verse category of Loudoun County Library Foundation’s 2020 Rhyme On poetry contest. The Prince William Arts Council and Poet Laureate Circle awarded her the 2020 Outstanding Poetry Project award for her participation in Write by the Rails' Poems Around Town poetry installation.

While Katherine is well-known for her poetry, she also has established a solid reputation for writing articles, columns and short fiction. She is a full-time marketing writer for a government contracting company and is published in dozens of journals and anthologies. She has authored eight books: Poems from the Battlefield, Furbily-Furld Takes on the World, Approaching Felonias Park, Weaker Than Water, Bury Me Under a Lilac, Late April and A Crane Named Steve. Get Happy, Dammit was released in June 2020.